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He has two of the surest hands in NFL history, but only now does Antonio Gates fully grasp what his little sister meant to him. The All-Pro tight end, beginning his 12th season with the San Diego Chargers, sat at his locker Tuesday and reminisced about his 22-year-old sister, Pam, who died last month after a three-year battle with lupus. She had been in a coma for several weeks after suffering her second heart attack. Gates missed all the Chargers' off-season workouts so he and his family — his parents and two other siblings — could be at Pam's bedside at the Cleveland Clinic. "We didn't know what was going to happen," he said. "We didn't...

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He has two of the surest hands in NFL history, but only now does Antonio Gates fully grasp what his little sister meant to him.
The All-Pro tight end, beginning his 12th season with the San Diego Chargers, sat at his locker Tuesday and reminisced about...